POWER ON POLE AT ST.PETE

Australian driver Will Power will start from pole at the  Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, Round one of the 2011 Indycar Championship. Power, driving the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske car, posted a quick lap of 1 minute, 01.9624 seconds (the quickest of the weekend) with 2:15 left in the 10-minute Firestone Fast Six shootout for his 11th IZOD IndyCar Series pole. He set a series record last season with eight. Four teams are represented on the first three rows for the 100-lap race on the tight 1.8-mile, 14-turn circuit with the scenic Tampa Bay in the background.

LOTUS JOIN INDYCAR AS F1 ROW CONTINUES

With the controversy continuing over the fight for the Lotus name in F1, now comes the news that Lotus will join the 2012 Indycar series as an engine supplier. Australian businessman and former Champ Car series co-owner Kevin Kalkhoven along with Gerry Forsythe are the men behind the move, with Cosworth to build the new engine. KV Racing, which Kalkhoven co-owns with former driver Jimmy Vasser is set to run the engine which will be announced at this year's LA Auto Show this Thursday at 5.00 PM local time. The announcment comes one week after General Motors annoced that Chevrolet would also be joining the series when the new regulations come into effect in 2012. Meanwhile the fight over the use of the Lotus name in Formula One next year has heightened with the news that Proton Holdings Bhd will buy a 25% stake in the Renault F1 team and changes the name of the team to Lotus Renault. Lotus Racing, which is led by Air Asia boss Tony Fernandes, intends to change the name of his team to Team Lotus next season after buying the rights from David Hunt a few months ago. The fight is almost certain to end up in London courts later this year.

INDYCAR READY TO REVEAL THE FUTURE, JULY 14

The future direction of the US based IndyCar Series will be made clearer when the series announces its future car strategy on July 14, in Indianapolis. The media announcent will unveil details of the new chassis as well as further details of the new engine configurations. "The ICONIC Advisory Committee continues to work diligently to finalize our future car strategy and a decision is imminent," said Randy Bernard, chief executive officer, IndyCar. "We look forward to unveiling our plans to our teams, drivers, partners, fans and the media during a special event on July 14." IZOD IndyCar Series officials and ICONIC (Innovative, Competitive, Open-Wheel, New, Industry-Relevant, Cost-Effective) Advisory Committee members will not comment about the next generation of chassis until the July 14 news conference.

BRISCOE TAMES TEXAS (& Danica too)

Pole sitter Ryan Briscoe held off Danica Patrick to win the Firestone 550K at Texas Motor Speedway last Saturday night. Marco Andretti finished third for the second consecutive race and New Zealand's Scott Dixon, the 2008 race winner, finished fourth. Briscoe had a late race dice with Patrick who continued her return to form after Indy. "Danica got by us and I didn't want to make any aggressive moves and block." said Briscoe. "I gained some momentum on the next lap, used the push-to-pass and was able to pass her out of Turn 4 and into Turn 1. She gave us a real run for our money tonight. It was fun racing side-by-side with her." Dixon's Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Dario Franchitti was fifth, ending the two-year streak of the Indianapolis 500 winner repeating at Texas the same year.

INDYCAR SAYS GOODBYE TO THE V8

Indycar have announced the end of the V8 with it's new engine rules for 2012 and beyond. The new rules stipulate a maximum of six cylinders as well as a 2.4 litre limit. According to the IRL the new engines will produce between 550 and 700 horsepower and will be turbocharged to allow for flexibility in power. "The ICONIC Advisory Committee has researched future engine platforms with manufacturers, teams, drivers and fans, and they felt this strategy best highlights key attributes of the sport - speed, competition and diversity," said Randy Bernard, chief executive officer of the Indy Racing League. "We feel this open and all-inclusive platform will make our sport an attractive option to engine manufacturers, while allowing development of a relevant and innovative platform to the current and future automotive industry by highlighting efficiency, performance, durability, quality, environmental responsibility and safety."

FRANCHITTI WINS SECOND STRAIGHT INDY 500

A dominant performance by Dario Franchitti has given the Scotsman his second straight win in America's biggest motor race, the Indianapolis 500. Franchitti started from position three but by the end of lap one he had already passed both Will Power and pole man Helio Castroneves for the lead. Second place went to England's Dan Wheldon. Wheldon came on strong late in the race to overhaul Marco Andretti who was the first American driver home in third. Alex Lloyd, drove from 26th to finish fourth. Initially credited with third place, Lloyd was relegated to fourth after stewards determined that he had passed under the yellow flag following the huge accident that took out Mike Conway and Ryan Hunter-Reay. Conway and Hunter-Reay made contact catapulting Conway into the air. His car hit the catch fencing, shredding the car, sending debris flying and leaving Conway with injuries to his left leg. The in-car footage from Hunter-Reay's car shows just how lucky he was to avoid any serious injury.

CONWAY CRASH AT INDY 500

WILL POWER ON WIND TUNNEL

WILL POWERS TO PARADISE POLE

Local hero Will Power has given his home state fans something to cheer about setting the fastest time in qualifying for Sunday's Gold Coast Indy 300. It'll be a trans-tasman showdown with series champion and 2008 Indy 500 winner New Zealand's Scott Dixon alongside Power on the front row.   In a qualifying session hit by showers, Power timed his run perfectly to beat the Kiwi star to the pole by almost a full second. “It was quite a difficult session, to be honest.” said Power. “ I went out there and half the track was wet and half the track was dry. It was a matter of getting through each round and in the last round it was all dry. It was back to what I knew quite well. On the last lap, I backed off out and made sure I got a good run in. I'm very happy for the team. We turned up with a pretty good car out of the box and the guys did great work. Hopefully we can get it done this weekend, because that's what we've been trying to do for the last three years.“